January 16th, 2016

Funny story to start the new year....

I was in house the other day that was pretty dilapidated. It had huge roof leaks and the interior was covered in mold. So I am doing an Investor Inspection that is designed to help the investor determine a repair/remodel strategy. Of course, one of the more important aspects is structural integrity.

I crawled into the attic as I always do. The home was built in the late 60's and the central air was added some time later. As I worked my way to the rear wing of the home, I found that someone had cut several trusses in a row to install the ductwork. The deeper I crawled, the more trusses I found cut. Then I realized........ I was stuck and could not turn around. 

I tried to back up, but that wasn't gong to work. I started to laugh at myself for getting myself in this predicament. I was seriously considering kicking out the drywall ceiling to get out. Most of the drywall in the home needed to be replaced because of the mold anyway, so I was not worried about destroying someones ceiling. It looked I might be able to crawl a bit farther and get to a place where I could turn around, so I just kept going. As I crawled, I found an attic access scuttle in the rear bedroom closet and was able to pry it open and drop down out of the attic. I could not help but to think of the imagery of the action movie hero sneaking into a building and dropping out of the ceiling... Made for a funny day.

But, in the end, the investor was very happy with the report as the cut trusses were a major concern for him. So it all worked out.